Windtalkers (SE)

War

Nicolas Cage	Sergeant Joe Enders
Adam Beach	Private Ben Yahzee
Noah Emmerich	Corporal Charles Rogers
Martin Henderson	Private John Nells
Frances O'Connor	Petty Officer Rita Swelton
Mark Ruffalo	Private Nicolas Pappas
Christian Slater	Ryan Anderson
Peter Stormare	Gunnery Sgt. Eric Hjelmstad
Roger Willie	Private Charles Whitehorse
Brian Van Holt	Private Ronald Harrigan
Jason Isaacs	Major Mellitz
Billy Morts	Sergeant Fortino
Cameron Thor	Mertens
Holmes Osborne	Colonel Hollings
Keith Campbell	Kittring

Director	John Woo
Producer	John Woo; Terence Chang
Writer	Joe Batteer; John Rice
Cinematography	Jeffrey L. Kimball
Musician	James Horner

Having earned Hollywood's respect with blockbusters like Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2, Hong Kong action master John Woo lends his signature style to serious World War II action in Windtalkers. Recognizing the long-forgotten contribution of Navajo "code talkers," whose use of an unbreakable Navajo-language radio code was instrumental in defeating the Japanese, the film serves as an admirable tribute to those Native American heroes. Unfortunately, it falls short of importance with its standard-issue story about a battle-scarred sergeant (Nicolas Cage) assigned to protect a code-talker (Adam Beach, from Smoke Signals), with unspoken orders to kill him if Japanese capture is imminent. This allows for an involving drama of hard-won friendship, but cardboard supporting characters suffer in the shadow of nonstop action that's as repetitious as it is technically impressive. Windtalkers is best appreciated as a more substantial vehicle for Woo's trademark ballet of bullets. --Jeff Shannon